Proposed Gondolas Would Transport People Between Boroughs Through The Sky

CityRealty president Dan Levy is planning on pitching a gondola transportation system at a real estate conference today. The East River Skyway network would require several phases of construction, each costing between $75 and $125 million, which would run from “Brooklyn Navy Yard to Williamsburg then across the river to the Lower East Side; up to Greenpoint and Long Island City, then to Roosevelt Island and the United Nations; and from the Navy Yard to DUMBO and South Street Seaport.”

The ambitious plan is one solution for catering to the many people moving along the coasts of Brooklyn and Queens. According to Levy, gondolas would be an efficient method of transportation.

Levy estimates gondolas today can move 5,000 people an hour per direction, with cars that can fit up to 38 people and would arrive once every 30 to 40 seconds. The closest thing to a gondola New Yorkers have experienced here is the Roosevelt Island tram, which moved 2.6 million people in the last fiscal year.

“A lot of cities around the world have started implementing these because the technology for gondolas has changed substantially in the last 15 years,” Levy told amNewYork. “They’ve gotten faster, they’re higher capacity.”

Levy also believes the development could be almost entirely privately funded, and eventually run as a private-public partnership. (Image: CityRealty)